INERCO collaborates to improve energy efficiency of Cepsa´s Gibraltar – San Roque refinery with the hot separator project in HDS unit IV

CEPSA has successfully started up the Hot Separator project in Hydrodesulphurisation Unit HDS IV of the Gibraltar – San Roque refinery, aiming to improve energy efficiency at the refinery.

INERCO was commissioned to provide the project’s basic and detailed engineering, purchase management and project management. The work involved the installation of a high pressure hot separator and a heat exchanger set. These take advantage of the reactor’s high outflow temperature and increase the temperature of the flow of air into the reactor using the heat exchange trains. This work has achieved a significant reduction in the fuel consumed by the Unit.

Specifically, a process of hydrodesulphurisation takes place in Unit HDS-IV. The process removes sulphur from fuel oil in a hydrogenation action that takes place under very intense process conditions (80 bar gauge and 600ºC); these temperature and pressure conditions dictated the design of the equipment for the project.